Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Last ISM Fair in Cologne I had the chance to meet the founders of the French company ONE GUM. This company commercializes a tabletted (compressed) chewing gum containing Vitamins B3, B6, B12 and Caffeine (50mg per piece). The interesting feature of this product is that it is made of two layers: One of the layers contains the caffeine, which is separated from the other layer that contains the gum and the vitamins B. This allows a faster absortion of the caffeine because it is not trapped in the gum structure.

This is produced in Denmark using patented technology. Other functional gums in the market use the double-layer feature, which has advantages not only related to the release of the active ingredients, but also related to the manufacture of the product itself.

I have posted in the past about DRIVE GUM (www.drivegum.com). This gum contains caffein + guaraná.

Now the same company offers “NATUR GUM” , which instead of focusing on the energy, it goes in the direction of the natural ingredients. It claims to use 100% natural ingredients, which includes natural gum base from Central America, the flavours, the sweeteners (Xylitol and/or Stevia). Even the packaging!

There are 3 types of gum in the range, which include functional ingredients like vitamin D and fluoride, while the compnay is working on other SKU, like “Multivitamin”, “Hunger inhibitor” and “Hemp”.

Witht his additions to the previous Energy Gum, the portfolio covers a good variety of functional applications.

The owner of the company, Mr Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, has been clever enough to register the domain www.functionalgums.com

The italian company SINTAL GROUP offers in their portoflio an interesting range of food supplements, but the ones of interest for us are the functional gums that come under the brand “MD’E GUM” (www.gumde.eu). Using the tabletting technology, which avoids the typical high temperatures of the traditional extrusion production method, they have a complete range of varieties, which includes:

Energy Gum: Caffeine (200mg per serving, which consists of 4 pieces of gum

The chew of the product is good, avoiding the crumbliness of some tabletted gums that I have seen in the market. The information related to the products contains data related to the release of the active ingredients, which enhances the reliability and professionality of the product.

Continuing with functional gums, some days ago I found this interesting example from Israel. The company (Supherb) has been manufacturing dietary supplements for over fiteen years, but recently decided to use chewing gum as a delivery system for such supplements. They launched the brand “Tab in Gum” (www.tabingum.com) for this purpose. One of the most interesting claims of this product is that it may contain up to 800mg of active ingredients, which is more than other functional chewing gums in the market. The company also claims that the active ingredient is released inside the mouth within 45 seconds. This gum does not use a tabletting technology (which seems to be the most common way to produce functional gums) and the product is coated.

Now it seems that they decided to target the US market. Of course, with such an interesting functional gum for sure there is an opportunity. I attach the article fom Confectiomery News (link) so you can read the full information. It seems that the current formulation has changed slightly from the one I mentioned one year ago (e.g. In the “Energy on Demand” version the guaraná has disappeared and there is vitamin B5 instead). What has not changed is that the article still mentions the same two products that I described: “energy on Demand” and ” Sleep on demand”. The third product of the range “Focus on demand” is not mentioned.

What I find interesting in the article is the specific mention to the e-commerce and the intention of the company to fully develop this sales channel.

Also, it mentions the trend of “sugarfree” and “aspartamefree”, which is useful to keep in mind.

I have in my hands some samples of “Chew Pod”, in the two verison that exist: “Energy on demand” and “Sleep on demand”.

Both are a very good example of tabletted gum (made from gum in pwoder by means of a tabletting machine). The gum pieces have 3 horizontal layers, I assume that they serve technological purposes (like minimizing the stickiness to the tabletting machine) rather than aesthetical ones. The crumbliness (quite common in these type of products) is minimized, or i would say, even non-existing. The flavor has a very good lasting. They come in blisterpacks wth 8 pieces each.

The one that claims “Energy” contains Caffeine, Taurine and Guaraná seed extract (50mg, 50mg and 40mg respectively). The ones that claims “Sleep” contains Griffonia simplicifolia seed (5-HTP: 5-hydroxytryptophan) at 50mg per piece and 1,5 mg of Melatonin. Both versions contain vitamin B6 (pyridoxine HCl) and are sweetened with Sucralose.

The company that produces them is headquartered in California, USA and the product is manufactured in Canada.

You can learn more in a very attractive website: www.chewpod.com and also in www.khloros.ca (where I can see a thrid version of the product, named “Focus” but this does not seem to be in the market yet). You can also check the facebook page @chewpod and the instagram with the same label @chewpod , where this “Focus” version also appears.

I have been silent for a while, but now I am happy to come back with one of my favorite subjects: Functional Gum.

See what I found in a pharmacy next to my home:

3 interesting functional gums:

“Satiant gum”: Appetite suppresant gum or also labelled as “Diet gum” containing FOS (Fructooligosacharides) and CGMP (CaseinGlucoMacroPeptide). It is tabletted gum (not so many in the market!)

“Relaxing gum”: It claims that it helps sleep, promotes resting and treats occasional insomnia. Formulated with valerian, tryptophan, lemon balm and melatonin. This is also tabletted. It has the characteristic texture of this type of gum.

“Vital gum”: Also labelled as “After party”. It says to promote alertness and reduce mental tiredness. It contains Pineapple extract, Vitamin C, B6 and B12, guarana extract and lycopene. This one is coated which makes it a bit different from the others.

The company which markets the gum is WUGum. The website is www.wugum.com

According to the web, there is also a gum that helps you getting tanned, but I did not find this one in the pharmacy.It is formulated with Betacaronte, lycopene and vitamins C, D3 and E. “Bronze gum”.